Northwest forests thick with carbon storage potential

The forests of Oregon and Northern California could almost double their carbon storage in coming years if managed for that purpose, Oregon State University researchers have found.

The study by researchers in the College of Forestry, published in the journal Ecological Applications, focused on a region that accounts for 14 percent of the live biomass in the United States, or about 2 billion tons of carbon.

Doubling carbon storage could only occur in the absence of fire or timber harvests -- an unrealistic scenario, the study's authors say.

But if all forest stands in this region were just allowed to increase in age by 50 years, their potential to store atmospheric carbon would still increase by 15 percent, the study concluded.

The researchers used data from 15,000 inventory plots to make their estimates.

Beverly Law, a professor of forest science at OSU, said the data indicates the forests might provide more opportunity for carbon storage than has been previously recognized.

Among the findings of the report:

* If forests in this region were managed over hundreds of years to maximize carbon sequestration, the carbon in live and dead biomass could theoretically double in the Coast Range, west and east Cascade Range and Sierra Nevada; and triple in the Klamath Mountains.

* About 65 percent of the live and dead biomass in this region is on public lands, while private lands often have younger age classes of vegetation and less total biomass.

* Contrary to accepted views on biomass stabilization and decline, biomass is still increasing in stands more than 300 years old in the Coast Range, Sierra Nevada and the West Cascade Range, and in stands more than 600 years old in the Klamath Mountains.